From <www.infoplease.com>:
"Central American Common Market (CACM), trade organization
started in 1960 by a treaty between Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua, El Salvador, and later Costa Rica. By the mid-1960s
the group had made advances toward economic integration, and by
1970 trade between member nations had risen more than tenfold
over 1960 levels. During the same period, imports doubled and a
common tariff was established for 98% of the trade with nonmember
countries. In 1967, at the conference of American presidents at
Punta del Este, Uruguay, it was decided that CACM, together with
the Latin American Free Trade Association, would be the basis for
a comprehensive Latin American common market. However, by the
early 1990s little progress toward a Latin American common market
had been made, in part because of internal and internecine
strife, in part because CACM economies were competitive, not
complementary. Nonetheless, CACM has been judged more successful
at lowering trade barriers than other Latin American groupings.Francisco Santos, 7 August 2003